Utah Outlaws Collective Bargaining by Public Employees as Part of a Broader Assault on Unions

The Utah Senate passed a House bill on Thursday that would outlaw public sector collective bargaining. Once signed by the governor, it will usher in one of the country’s most severe and restrictive rollbacks of union rights in recent memory. 

The version that the Senate passed includes all of the provisions of the House bill, except that, instead of immediately decertifying existing collective bargaining agreements, it will allow CBAs to expire, after which time they cannot be renewed or renegotiated.

The Utah Education Association, which represents Utah’s public school teachers, has called the bill “a legislative power grab” meant to “consolidate power at the expense of Utah’s public education system.” The International Association of Fire Fighters has called on the Governor to veto the bill.

Even the most anti-union states that curtail collective bargaining rights for public sector workers usually allow carve-outs. Texas, Georgia, and a handful of other Republican-dominated states prohibit public sector collective bargaining, but make exceptions for police and firefighters, as do big-ticket anti-union bills such as Florida’s SB 256. Indeed, attempts to protect police and firefighters provide proof that the rights of public sector workers writ large are almost always collateral damage from what is manifestly the real target of anti-union ire: teachers’ unions. 

Although recent GOP attacks on teachers have ostensibly centered on control over classroom content as part of the so-called culture wars, teachers have long served as the whipping post of billionaire-funded groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Freedom Foundation due to their unions’ unwavering financial support for Democratic candidates and progressive causes. The president and CEO of the State Policy Network (SPN), a national network of right-wing think tanks that includes the Freedom Foundation, admitted that the Right’s campaign to “defund and defang” public sector unions has the goal of “permanently depriving the left from access to millions of dollars in dues.” Much anti-union legislation simply targets teachers’ unions outright.

Yet the new bill in Utah makes no pretense of currying favor with any unions, law enforcement or otherwise. Only three states — both Carolinas and Virginia — completely outlaw collective bargaining for public sector workers. Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s notorious Act 10, which outlawed collective bargaining for most public sector workers when it became law in 2011, was recently ruled unconstitutional. But its fate remains uncertain as the Right appeals that decision to the state Supreme Court.

The Utah bill was introduced by state Representative Jordan Teuscher, an active member of ALEC, and received supportive testimony from representatives of the National Right to Work Committee and Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Utah, a political arm of the right-wing network founded by the petrochemical billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch. State Senator Kirk A. Cullimore, who sponsored the bill in his chamber, is also an active ALEC member.

These out-of-state, billionaire-funded groups have long bankrolled attempts to obliterate labor rights, most notoriously — and effectively — through “right to work” laws, which attempt to starve public sector unions of their financial base by permitting workers to benefit from union contracts without having to pay union dues or agency fees. 

ALEC, which helps lobbyists work with state lawmakers to develop and disseminate pro-corporate model bills, has long been at the forefront of the campaign to erode workers’ organizing rights. It provides its legislators with a regularly updated anti-union playbook bursting with cookie-cutter bills written to do everything from encourage workers to sue their unions to blacklist employers that voluntarily recognize unions to keep them from receiving state economic development incentives.

This year, ALEC-style right to work legislation has been introduced in New Hampshire (HB 238, 2025) and Montana (LC-HD4333). In Virginia lawmakers are considering adopting right to work as a constitutional amendment.

Given that these state laws are often being pushed by national organizations, many corporate lobbyists find themselves crisscrossing the country to push anti-union legislation. On January 22, John Kalb, vice president of the National Right to Work Committee, testified in favor of New Hampshire’s right to work bill, and the next day, he was in Utah to speak in favor of its bill to outlaw collective bargaining. 

Yet for decades, many states — including New Hampshire — have fended off out-of-state interests to keep them from successfully stewarding right to work and other anti-union legislation.

“This bill is an attempt to divide and confuse,” said New Hampshire Representative Thomas Oppel (D-Canaan) at a committee hearing about HB 238. “It has nothing to do with real rights and nothing to do with real work. It would simply allow a few to benefit at the expense of others.”